BACKGROUND: Montelukast (Singulair) is a cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist, used for the maintenance treatment of asthma and to relieve symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis and asthma, also used for exercise-induced bronchospasm. AIM: This study was performed to determine the prevalence of Montelukast use as an add-on therapy among Iraqi asthmatic patients on treatment. Comparing the effectiveness of regimens with and without montelukast. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 73 Iraqi asthmatic patients on treatment of both sexes with age range (18-60) years old, attending Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital and Al-Zahraa Centre of Asthma and Allergy, Baghdad, for the period between February and March 2017. A questionnaire was specifically prepared to meet the objectives and was used to collect the data of the study. RESULTS: There was a significant statistical reduction of frequency in asthmatic attacks after Montelukast treatment (p-value < 0.05). Out of 73 patients, 39 were males, and 34 were females, 46 were jobless, 37 were married, 63 were urban residents, 63 were educated. Prevalence of exacerbation factors was as following: infection was found in 60.3% of the patients, exercise in 57.5%, dust in 72.6%, smoking in 60.6%, food in 24.7%, others (stress, perfumes) in 20.5%. The prevalence of Montelukast use in this study was 46% (34 patients). Out of 34 patients using Montelukast, 28 were using inhaled salbutamol, 5 were using oral salbutamol, 15 were using inhaled corticosteroids, 9 were using systematic corticosteroids, 2 were using xanthines, and 6 were using ketotifen. CONCLUSION: Montelukast was used as add-on therapy with the inhaled corticosteroids to reduce the required dose of inhaled corticosteroids also the use of Montelukast lead to reduced number of exacerbations which will be reflected on the use of inhaled salbutamol and systematic corticosteroids. Also, Montelukast was superior to xanthines and ketotifen as an add-on therapy.
A novel planar type antenna printed on a high permittivity Rogers’ substrate is proposed for early stage microwave breast cancer detection. The design is based on a p-shaped wide-slot structure with microstrip feeding circuit to eliminate losses of transmission. The design parameters are optimized resulting in a good reflection coefficient at −10 dB from 4.5 to 10.9 GHz. Imaging result using inhomogeneous breast phantom indicates that the proposed antenna is capable of detecting a 5 mm size cancerous tumor embedded inside the fibroglandular region with dielectric contrast between the target and the surrounding materials ranging from 1.7 : 1 to 3.6 : 1.
The virulent genes are the key players in the ability of the bacterium to cause disease. The products of such genes that facilitate the successful colonization and survival of the bacterium in or cause damage to the host are pathogenicity determinants. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of virulence factors (esp, agg, gelE, CylA) in E. faecalis isolated from diverse human clinical collected in Iraqi patient , as well as to assess their ability to form biofilm and to determine their haemolytic and gelatinase activities. Thirty-two isolates of bacteria Enterococcus faecalis were obtained, including 15 isolates (46.87%) of the urine, 6 isolates (18.75%) for each of the stool and uterine secretions, and 5 isolates (15.62%) of the wo
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper is to find the best multiplier approximation of unbounded functions in –space by using some discrete linear positive operators. Also we will estimate the degree of the best multiplier approximation in term of modulus of continuity and the averaged modulus.
The Accommodation industry in Iraq suffers from many problems, especially after 2003, when the Accommodation industry was exposed to many crises due to the security and political situation in Iraq, which negatively affected the administrative operations inside the industry and created many problems, the most important of which are deterioration, high costs and poor performance, so some hotel administrations sought To find alternative solutions that help in the advancement of hotels, one of the proposals is to go to technology, as technology is currently one of the most important solutions to solve large complex problems, as the world has turned to automation to solve complex problems such as increasing production, reducing costs, and rai
... Show MoreThe research aims at identifying the extent to which the top management in the organization is interested in managing the talents of its employees, through which it can face the competing organizations, as well as the great challenges faced by all organizations in recent years. The task of attracting and maintaining talented human resources is one of the biggest challenges facing Organizations
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The education sector suffers from many problems, including the scarcity of schools that can absorb the increasing number of students in light of the increasing population growth rate, as some regions suffer from a lack of opening of new schools or the expansion of existing schools to increase their capacity so that attention is required. The research sought to identify the level of maturity of project management at the research site (Building Department in Al-Karkh I/ Ministry of Education) Being responsible for educational projects and their implementation and to know that, the ten areas of the knowledge guide to project management PMBOK have been adopted according to the PM3 model (one of the models of maturity
... Show MoreIn this paper , concrete micro-piles were used to improve the bearing capacity of the soil which is supporting the shallow foundation by using groups of (4; 6 and 9)bored short micro-piles which have, (D=0.125m and D=0.1m), and length to diameter ratio (L/D) equal to (6; 10 and 12) respectively. To calculate the bearing capacity of the micro-piles,(Tomlinson) and (Lamda) methods were used; also the soil properties were taken from Al-Muthana airport,(Al-Qyssi,2001) [1]. The results show that; increasing the number of piles and/ or the diameters and lengths; and the interaction between the bearing capacity of the shallow foundation with the bearing capacity of the pile group which leads to increasing the strength against the external loads
... Show MoreThe effects of T-shaped fins on the improvement of phase change materials (PCM) melting are numerically investigated in vertical triple-tube storage containment. The PCM is held in the middle pipe of a triple-pipe heat exchanger while the heat transfer fluid flows through the internal and external pipes. The dimension effects of the T-shaped fins on the melting process of the PCM are investigated to determine the optimum case. Results indicate that while using T-shaped fins improves the melting performance of the PCM, the improvement potential is mainly governed by the fin’s body rather than the head. Hence, the proposed T-shaped fin did not noticeably improve melting at the bottom of the PCM domain; additionally, a flat fin is ad
... Show MoreThe intelligent buildings provided various incentives to get highly inefficient energy-saving caused by the non-stationary building environments. In the presence of such dynamic excitation with higher levels of nonlinearity and coupling effect of temperature and humidity, the HVAC system transitions from underdamped to overdamped indoor conditions. This led to the promotion of highly inefficient energy use and fluctuating indoor thermal comfort. To address these concerns, this study develops a novel framework based on deep clustering of lagrangian trajectories for multi-task learning (DCLTML) and adding a pre-cooling coil in the air handling unit (AHU) to alleviate a coupling issue. The proposed DCLTML exhibits great overall control and is
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